April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Canada plans to change its foreign
takeover legislation to make reviews more transparent as it
seeks to assure business the country remains open to investment.

The changes, introduced April 26 as part of a budget bill,
will allow the industry minister to publicly explain why an
acquisition has been blocked as long as the information doesn’t
cause harm to the businesses involved, Industry Canada said in a
news release April 27.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is seeking to strengthen
investor confidence in the review process amid criticism the
system is unpredictable, after his government rejected a hostile
takeover bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. by BHP
Billiton Ltd in 2010. Harper has said that decision stemmed from
unique circumstances.

Under Canada’s foreign-takeover law, known as the
Investment Canada Act, the government reviews foreign takeovers
valued at more than C$330 million ($336 million) in assets to
ensure the transaction represents a “net benefit’ to the
nation.

Canada’s system for weighing takeovers is ‘‘highly
subjective and unpredictable,” the Toronto-based C.D. Howe
Institute said in a study released in December. The rules may
have contributed to the decline in Canada’s share of global
foreign-direct investment, it said.

The changes will allow the government to disclose when the
industry minister has sent a preliminary notice to an investor
that that an acquisition isn’t a “net benefit” to the
country. The department also said the changes will allow the
minister to “accept security” for payment of any court-ordered
penalties for contravention of the Investment Canada Act by
investors.

The amendments are included in a bill introduced April 26
by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to implement measures in the
March 29 budget.

Compliance Policy

Money Market Funds May Face Tougher Regulation in IOSCO Plan

Global regulators are weighing tougher rules for money
market funds over concerns that they may amplify future
financial crises.

“Confidence shocks” in such funds can “quickly have a
broader macroeconomic impact,” the International Organization
of Securities Commissions said in a document published April 27
on its website.

Options being considered by regulators include imposing
stricter liquidity requirements on money market funds, and
reducing their reliance on credit ratings, IOSCO said.

IOSCO, based in Madrid, is seeking views on the plans until
May 28.

Brazil National Monetary Council Simplifies Bank Branch Rules

Brazil’s national monetary council approved a resolution to
simplify rules governing local branches, the bank said in a
statement published April 27.

The head of central bank’s regulatory department, Sergio
Odilon dos Anjos, said the measure could reduce banks’ costs by
allowing them to choose the size of their local operations in
line with local demand.

Iran Disclosure Rule Now Being Developed By SEC, Chairman Says

Companies may be required to disclose their dealings with
Iran under a rule being worked on by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission that could expose them to sanctions, the
agency chairman told a congressional committee, BNA reported.

SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro said April 25 in a hearing before
the Capital Markets Subcommittee of the House Committee on
Financial Services that the agency’s staff is “well under way”
in developing the rule.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, in a report that
accompanied its appropriations bill for the 2012 fiscal year,
directed the SEC to issue final rules under the Iran Sanctions
Act of 1996.

The Appropriations Committee is concerned that companies
have broad discretion under current SEC regulations to decide if
disclosure of their activities is required “with respect to
business interests in or with a state sponsor of terrorism,”
the report said.

China Reviews Plan to Lower Stock Trading Fees, Regulator Says

China is studying and reviewing a proposal to lower fees
and costs for stock trading, the China Securities Regulatory
Commission said in a statement posted on its website April 27,
without elaborating.

Separately, China published proposed rules earlier this
month to encourage fund-management companies to regulate
purchases by managers of funds that they or their employers run.

The rules will also allow employees of fund-management
companies to invest in closed-end funds using non-stock accounts
and cancel time limits on holding money-market and cash-management funds, the commission said in statement.

China’s Stock Exchanges Seek to Widen Delisting Procedures

China’s two stock exchanges said they aim to widen criteria
for delisting companies to better protect investors’ interests.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange are
seeking public feedback on planned changes by May 20, according
to statements on their websites yesterday. Current procedures
don’t “fully serve their purpose” and the changes should allow
swifter removal of companies from trading and a faster path to
relisting, according to the Shanghai statement.

Guo Shuqing, who was appointed as China’s top securities
regulator in October, has pledged to fight insider trading and
misconduct in the nation’s securities markets. The agency is
studying ways to make its delisting policies more effective as
companies use loopholes to avoid removal from trading, according
to an April 20 statement on its website.

Among the proposed changes, companies with negative net
assets will no longer be allowed to remain listed. The bourse
will look at the net income excluding one-time gains of
companies seeking to relist, as the benchmark for a true picture
of their profit.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission may exclude non-recurring items from net income, as some unprofitable companies
use government subsidies or other sources to book profits and
avoid delisting, according to its April 20 statement.

Other criteria being considered by the bourses are annual
revenue and trading volume, according to exchange statements.

Compliance Action

Dewey & Leboeuf Said to Be Probe Subject as Deadline Nears

Dewey & Leboeuf LLP, the New York law firm fighting to stay
alive after more than 70 partners left, is the subject of a
criminal probe by state prosecutors into whether managers misled
partners about payments due them, a person familiar with the
matter said.

The investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus
Vance Jr. is in a preliminary stage and has yet to determine
whether a crime has been committed, said the person, who
declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Dewey, the No. 3 law firm adviser to banks handling merger
deals, faces an April 30 deadline to show bank lenders it has a
survival plan, possibly including absorption by another firm or
cost-cutting.

The law firm has lost about 72 partners in recent months
amid complaints about pay and a plan to restructure the firm. It
has drawn about $75 million of a $100 million credit line from
banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.,
according to a person familiar with the firm’s finances. The
banks extended an initial April 16 deadline to come up with a
plan, according to a person familiar with a merger proposal
Dewey has presented to other law firms.

Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for Vance, declined to comment.
Angelo Kakolyris, a spokesman for Dewey, didn’t return a call
seeking comment on the probe. When reach April 26 he declined to
comment on the deadline.

In addition to the bank deadline, the firm also has $125
million in bonds sold to insurance companies in 2010 to
refinance previous bank loans.

Dewey placed 28th in American Lawyer’s ranking of the
largest 100 law firms, with 190 partners and 2011 revenue of
$782 million.

For more, click here.

EU Lawmakers to Vote on Basel Bank Law on May 14, Bowles Says

The European Parliament will vote on a bill that sets bank-capital rules for the 27-nation bloc on May 14, Sharon Bowles,
chairwoman of the parliament’s economic and monetary affairs
committee, said in an interview in Brussels April 27.

For more, click here, and see Interviews section, below.

JPMorgan, Goldman CEOs to Meet with Fed on Rule, WSJ Says

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has organized a meeting of bank
CEOs with Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo, the Wall
Street Journal reported, citing people it didn’t identify who
were familiar with situation.

The meeting set for May 2 in New York and is expected to
include Dimon as well as CEOs from Goldman Sachs, Morgan
Stanley, and Bank of America. The focus will be the proposal by
the Federal Reserve to limit banks’ exposure to other firms and
government, according to the people, the newspaper reported.

The draft rule would impact banks with derivatives
businesses because it would limit net credit exposures between
any two of the nation’s largest banks, according to the
newspaper.

The bankers plan to tell regulators that the rule is based
on unrealistic standards and may spur “potentially
destabilizing” market shifts, the paper wrote, citing two draft
letters it obtained.

FSA Launches Redress Scheme Consultation for Arch Cru Investors

The Financial Services Authority started a three-month
consultation on establishing a consumer compensation plan, which
could deliver more than 100 million pounds ($162 million) to
investors who were mis-sold the CF Arch Cru Investment and
Diversified funds.

BOX Options Gets SEC Approval to Run U.S. Market as Own Exchange

BOX Options Exchange LLC, owned by the Toronto Stock
Exchange operator and seven brokers including Citadel LLC and
Interactive Brokers Group Inc., won approval April 27 to become
a U.S. securities exchange.

TMX Group Inc., which owns 53.8 percent of parent company
BOX Holdings Group LLC, will limit its equity stake in the self-regulatory organization, the entity registered with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission that will operate the market,
to 40 percent and its voting share to 20 percent, according to
the document. Interactive Brokers will have
20 percent of BOX Holdings. Citadel, Citigroup Inc., UBS AG and
Credit Suisse Group AG will each own between 3.99 percent and
4.2 percent.

BOX, introduced in 2004, currently uses the exchange
license of Nasdaq OMX BX, owned by New York-based Nasdaq OMX
Group Inc., to run its options market. The company has been
seeking its own license since at least 2008, according to Chief
Executive Officer Anthony McCormick.

For more, click here.

Daimler May Complain to Bafin About Disclosure Rules, FT Reports

Daimler AG may complain to Bafin, Germany’s financial
regulator, about new rules on reporting financial options that
the company says have confused investors, the Financial Times
reported.

Daimler had to notify investors this month that, while
Deutsche Bank AG had a direct stake of 3.6 percent, additional
financial instruments in theory gave the bank almost 18 percent
of the voting rights, the newspaper said.

Bodo Uebber, Daimler’s finance chief, said the rules, which
came into force in February, create “a high potential for
confusion,” adding that the company has “a balanced
shareholder structure” and is “not a takeover target,” the FT
reported.

Courts

Lehman Unit’s Swap Side Deal Not Worth $1 Billion, Court Rules

Lehman Brothers Finance SA won a U.K. case over a side
agreement tied to over-the-counter derivatives with Lehman
Brothers International Europe, which had valued it at as much as
$1 billion.

Judge Michael Briggs in London ruled April 27 in favor of
the Swiss-based-affiliate that the so-called side letter, linked
with an International Swaps and Derivatives Association master
agreement, had no value.

“The insolvency has thrown up a number of cases where ISDA
clauses are, for the first time, being tested by the courts,”
Guy Usher, a lawyer at Field Fisher Waterhouse who represented
Lehman Brothers Finance, said in a statement. He described the
decision as “very significant” for the Lehman Brothers Finance
estate.

The swaps terminated automatically when LBF defaulted by
filing for bankruptcy. LBIE, the London-based unit of Lehman
Brothers Holdings Inc., had argued the net close-out amount on
the transaction -- covering about 12,000 equity-derivative
trades -- should have favored it by $1 billion.

A U.K. appeals court earlier this month rejected an appeal
from administrators at two units of the New York-based parent,
saying they couldn’t force buyers of interest-rate swaps to make
payments arising from the period after the bank’s 2008 collapse.

At the time of Lehman’s collapse, it had more than 900,000
derivative contracts outstanding.

Interviews

Donahue Opposes SEC’s Proposed Money Fund Rules

Christopher Donahue, chief executive officer of Federated
Investors Inc., talked about the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission’s proposal for new rules governing the $2.6 trillion
U.S. money market fund industry.

Comings and Goings

BOE to Pay More to Move PRA Home From London’s Canary Wharf

The Bank of England will shift the planned Prudential
Regulation Authority from London’s Canary Wharf district to more
expensive premises near the central bank’s headquarters.

The Bank of England has signed contracts on 20 Moorgate in
the City of London, the U.K. capital’s main financial district,
according to an e-mailed statement released today. The building
will house the PRA, which will be a unit of the central bank
responsible for banking supervision when it takes over from the
Financial Services Authority next year.

The estimated extra cost of relocating to Moorgate rather
than continuing to use the FSA’s current offices is less than
1 million pounds ($1.6 million) a year over the next 15 years,
the central bank said.